Blitziscomin Maze Part III

I will not lie to you guys but riding on coattails is so much fun. I encourage everyone to try it sometime. I am back again riding his coattails. Blitz does awesome work and I just ride in as a member of the Maze. Blitz you are more than welcome to keep working with the Maze as long as I get to ride your coattails. We have another edition of our collaboration (mainly his work, I just post it and add a few words). This reminds me of my undergrad physics lab, I showed up for the experiments and came up with a few ideas for the experiments and conducted them but never did the write up. Got an A in the class.

Something that has helped me improve my coaching is to take a look at the Game Log, both offensively and defensively as every season winds down to see what stands out. Here are my Oklahoma Game Logs this morning:

Offense

Defense

The offensive Game Log shows me (as always) that I struggle in games where my Pass % is below 50%. I was lucky to win against Miami and I didn't improve anything so the next game I was killed by Penn State. It was after that loss that I tweaked my offensive playbooks and formations - things have been better offensively since then.

The defensive Game Log is more interesting to me. I had a 3 Interception 9 Sack game vs. Texas. I also had a 3 Interception 5 Sack game vs. Nebraska. I also had interceptions against Miami, Missouri, and Texas A&M. Time to dig deeper to figure out how/why.

Texas has thrown 4 Interceptions this season and 3 were to me.

Nebraska has thrown 5 Interceptions this season and 3 were to me.

Missouri has thrown 3 Interceptions this season and 2 were to me.

Miami has thrown 3 Interceptions this season and 1 was to me.

We are in the first half at Texas A&M. I have 3 Interceptions and they had 3 total before this game.

So either A) the sim is randomly giving me more interceptions -or- B) I am doing things differently on defense to create turnovers. If you choose A --- you can stop reading here. There is nothing more to see.

Several months ago I posted on GD forums about my defenses. I shared data how my defenses over several seasons in multiple worlds consistently hold ranked human opponents to 19-20 ppg while creating turnovers that lead to 9-10 ppg. I've logged 40-50 seasons of data in five worlds so I am beginning to think that the sim isn't randomly giving me more interceptions than other coaches.

How do I set up my defense?

Yesterday I wrote about how I change my Position Roles for my RB U1 and TE U1 to match the WR ratings so I can compare all of my receivers equally. I do the same defensively. I changed my LB1 Attributes to that of a DL. I changed my LB2 Attributes to that of a CB.

I play a 3-4 defense but that is really in name only. I can put 2 LBs on the line and play a better 5-2 than most coaches. How do I know? Because I look at my LB User 1 Ratings that is rating my LBs as DL. I have LBs with DL ratings of 88, 86, 82, 81.

My top 3 DL ratings of my DL are 83, 81, 78. So my best DL are actually my LBs with DL ratings of 88 and 86. That is good to know when I want to stop the run and stack the line.

Let's now look at DB ratings:

The top rated CBs on my Oklahoma roster:

1-LB Daniel Gordon (80 CB Rating)

2- DB Jason Garcia (79 CB Rating)

3- DB Richard Cox (79 CB Rating)

4- LB Harold Barrera (78 CB Rating)

5- DB Gary Sapp (75 CB Rating)

6- DB Charles Lopez (75 CB Rating)

7- DB Joseph Burnett (74 CB Rating)

8- LB Edward Buchanan (73 CB Rating)

I could make an argument that my 3-4 defense with LBs Gordon, Barrera, and Buchanan in coverage is better against the pass than any Dime defense currently in Wilkinson. I have 6 defenders in coverage that are 75+ rated CBs and the 7th defender is a 73 rated CB.

I'm sure some coaches reading this realize that those top two LBs of mine are huge studs -- they are the #1 and #2 Guess rated LBs. Those didn't just appear in Norman Oklahoma as a gift. I have well over $150k invested recruiting those two LBs. Sacrifices had to be made on offensive recruits to get them. Understanding how I want to build my team --- and how to beat the top coaches in GD --- have led me to change some things. I spend more money on DBs and LBs than I used to. That means I spend less on RBs, WRs, and sometimes even QBs to get that talent. I redshirt a lot of LBs and DBs. That means that I can't redshirt a QB RB and WR each season. I have 8 redshirt defenders on my defense this season with another FR DB sitting this season making it 9. I only have 4 redshirt offensive guys playing this season with a FR QB and RB sitting this season making that total 7. I don't know of many coaches that have more defensive redshirts than offensive redshirts.

Another way I have benefitted from changing my LB1 and LB2 attributes is recruiting. I use yatz but I have also found it helpful to sort LB recruits on WIS by LB1 and LB2 to see who are great DL and CB.

Here are a lot of LB recruits within my 360 this season:

Before we wrap this up let's take a quick look at sacks. It is no secret that I blitz every play (my name is a dead giveaway).

My blitzing LB is productive once again this season.

I really don't do anything special with the blitzer. The blitzing LB is usually my worst coverage LB so he gets to blitz. I don't think it matters if he blitzes from the inside or outside. I think a large factor is most of the sacks are probably coverage sacks - excellent coverage leading to my blitzing LB hogging the stat sheet. One thing I will point out to coaches thinking about blitzing more - don't do it until you have good coverage players. It is highly likely that you will get killed giving up big plays if you blitz without excellent coverage. Build the coverage first and then add the blitzing.

Conclusion

Checking your team's Game Log, both offensively and defensively, is a good habit to get into. Look for what jumps out at you in your losses and wins. For myself, defensive stats jump out at me more than my offensive stats so I have spent more time improving my defense. I have found it very hard to sacrifice offensive recruit money and redshirts to invest in defense -- but I am satisfied with my return on investment.